Well heare's my two cents worth. Built both the .25 Giles and their small Extra. Thought both kits required more work than the typical small .25 size plane....but that's scale for you. If you build the Giles, loose the lite ply landing gear mounting plates and go with birch intead. Fasten the gear with blind nuts, epecially if you fly from a grass. Even if you take pride in silky landings, a slight catch in the grass will shear the gear. The Extra doesn't seem to have any hitches.
The quality of both is pretty good. Both are laser cut. Sheeting and stick wood was good/average. Neither kit had much at all in the way of hardware. So be prepared to go fishing for bellcranks, rods, ect. The cowls are made of the white plastic stuff that a lot of manufacturers are fond of. If you like cowls that last for more than a few scessions, you'll want to glass them for sure. Incidentally, I noticed the other day that the Giles cowl is starting to sort of blister. Looks sort of like a potato chip on the sides. Never had that happen before. Anybody know what that's about?
Anyway, The Giles has an O.S. FP .40 and mokes along pretty good. Tracks darned nice for a small plane and a super job at the aerobatics. Now for the bad news: if balanced according to plan, you have one whirly-dervish snap roller of a plane. Wheel landings are the rule of the day...the faster, the better. Problem is that if you fly from less than perfect surface, it does what small planes love to do, and that's go rump over tea kettle. Landings in gusty winds are a problem. Set up your flair to touch-down, and if the wind softens, you can count on a snap due to the loss of air speed. However, I'm going to keep at it. Feel that if the plane is balanced 1/2" to 1" ahead of the correct location it might tame the beast.
As for the Extra.... it's a cool flying little plane. Has an OS .32 in the nose, and it still required a little nose weight. The plane SMOKES at full throttle and is pretty well mannered at slower speed. So far haven't encounted any unexpected snapping, but it's balanced slightly ahead of the plan indication. The finished weight is a little over 4 lbs. Like I said, I was surprised at how much time was required for such a small plane, but it did yield a super flying plane.
Of the two, I'd have to say the Extra is a lot bigger kick in the britches to fly...but of course each to his own. That's about all I can think of to say about the subject, except good luck and don't get either too slow at the wrong time!